Thursday, June 21, 2012

Adam Widener on Big Action Records

This single came in from Adam himself, who sent along a great old zine of his, Plastique Pop which was done kind of recently and I got a little nostalgic for the old xeroxed 20 page diaries from all over the country and if a single or live show was mentioned, it was the best thing ever and purchased immediately. Adam's mag was super professional and had some pretty awesome interviews with bands I know now, but that he was covering years ago. You need to know he's got this kind of extensive music background before putting this single on.

A-Sides "Crime in the City" does this awesome thing I'm jealous of... I'm listening to the sound of a record needle being dropped onto a record. But wait...I just did that? It's maddening and genius, really hilarious actually. You can tell right away from PP this guy is seriously dedicated to the entire scene, to all the people around him, encouraging them, putting out their stuff... a lot like Paul from Mammoth Cave or Bobby from Kind Turkey. Their dedication runs deep and it's the kind of support that's across the board awesome. They will get a piece of my future lottery money winnings to press singles forever. This is a legally binding statement, I am of sound mind and body.

So one day Adam gets to recording and finds Big Action to release this, with exposure to the entire scene he's influenced by a ton of poppy punk with lots of vocal hooks, from the very beginning this thing has a lot of tunes to prove...or maybe finally get out. They've been building up into these punchy, frantic one man tunes, it's all boiling over,
"Lowest Common Denominator Rock" next is coming off like a stuttered Devo, kind of manic, forced sound. Awkward as hell, weird effects on the bass or guitar sounding like synth. Great just echo'd enough vocals. Consolidating and distilling down all of that pop rock harder stuff, everything played by Adam, which I still find impressive. To keep this kind of manic weirdo energy when it's just you laying down track after track. You have to be completely committed to this stuff with no hesitation but still be excited about it. I can see this impressive work ethic that's bound to get him somewhere in whatever direction he chooses. Did Jay Reatard just write all those tracks on Blood Visions right out of the gate? No way...frankly that's why I admire him more. He worked the shit out a hundred bands and toured incessantly, not that just that's going to get you anywhere either...but it won't make this just a right place in the right time situation. He's been preparing, and it's just taken everyone long enough to notice.
Side W has "Cola Kids Hanging out in the Bubble Dome" the weirdest pop song, the stuttery quality of this is catching up to him in an interesting way. It's sort of a caged surf sound, like a new demo button on a casio, there's a layer of this real structured methodolgy to this '50s feel going off the rails in a robotic way. Turning Japanese? "ccmmykk" has this instrumental feel at the beginning and then bursts into this title chorus which is about those colors on the printer, the mechanical Mr Roboto sound going on about such a crazy subject. It's the kind of idiosyncratic stuff like this right out of the gate that is further proof this sort of thing has been slowly building, he's been absorbing it all for years and it's coming out miles ahead of where it should be.

Great insert in an almost Chris Ware style about playing the record, and registering the record... and caring for the record. I'm a sucker for all of the nerdy ephemera surrounding vinyl. I have record player dish towels. I don't give a shit! I like em.

It also mentions this was recorded at a Hollywood Inn Express? This might be the name of a studio but I'm hoping it was a hotel room somewhere in LA. That about sums this up. A weird message in a bottle. Finding someone's stack of personal photos in the gutter.. a lot of specifics are missing but there's a big story here.

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